Life and Death of my Vocaloid
by EndlesslyVocaloid
Summary: I was sure that I couldn't be imagining the Vocaloid across the street. And yet, as life went on and me and him somehow became one, I still think that I never held him in a sweet embrace as he died in my arms.


"Mum?" I asked my mother, as we stood in line at the check out at a store.

"Hm?" she said.

"There's these androids, and they sing using that Vocaloid program..."

My mother nods, taking this information in. I can tell she's about to tell me how 'interested' she is, when I continue.

"It's for sale in Japan right now, and I'm asking you for one."

"How much?" I know i'm about to lose this, but I have to try anyway. My thirteen year old self wouldn't forgive me if I didn't.

"Uh... One hundred dollars even, I think."

"Well then you're gonna save up your own damn money."

"But this is only this week! Anyway who doesn't order by then isn't getting one!"

She looked at me. I had so much longing in me, it was impossible. She saw the pleading in my eyes, and as I started to unload the contents of our cart onto the conveyor belt, she said, "We'll see."

I've been a Vocaloid fan for far too long, and now I was dying to have one. Japan had created Androids after Vocaloids that act as humans, and I wanted one so bad ;_;.

It was Wendsday when I asked again.

"Why do you want this so bad?" she asked me.

"I can't really explain it," I said. "But...I..." I couldn't think of a good reason to convince her that it wasn't a waste of money.

"Uh-huh," she said, reading my mind. She crossed her arms. "You can't just buy something then not have a purpose for it!"

I went to school on Monday feeling heart-broken. The week had ended, so I was out of luck. I was peering around in the early morning light as I walked down my street to my bus stop when I saw something strange across the street. It was a boy, sitting on the curb. He was clutching his arm, and it was...sparking?

On closer inspection, I realized it was an android. A Kagamine Len android.

Right across from me.

My heart flew, but I instantly froze as he looked up and glared at me. He looked at me, eyes full of fright, and he stood and started running down the street, thankfully in the direction I was going.

"Wait!" I shouted. He didn't stop.

"Please stop running!" I shouted again. We reached the end of the street, and that's when he collapsed in the middle of the road. It was six thirty, and the others wouldn't show until about ten minutes from now. I was always early. The only person there was my friend George, a crazy high schooler. He looked up from his mp3 player long enough to see Len collapse, and me run into the street to help him.

"Please!" He said, in Japanese of course. The only word I really knew well in Japanese was 'please.' "Watashi o kizutsukeru koto wa arimasen!"

George walked over to us. He was taking Japanese in high school, but I doubted he knew that much yet. "Gomen'nasai! Watashi wa watashi ga naniwoshita ka shiranaiga, watashi ni sawaranaide kudasai!"

"What the fuck?" George mumbled. I asked him to leave us alone, not sure why myself. I noticed that cars were hesitating as they passed by, and the attention was unwanted.

"Can you speak any English?" I asked him when George left.

He looked up at me, trying to process what I was saying. "Hai..." he said slowly, then said, "I mean yes!"

Why was he all scared like this?

"Calm down," I said to him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

He looked like he didn't believe me. "Please don't! All of you just want me to break! That's why my arm's broken! They almost damaged my entire arm, and you...you're just gonna tear it off, aren't you?!"

I didn't expect any of this, and I listened to him rant as he started to cry. I felt close to tears as well, and I felt scared for him.

"Look," I said, flustered, "I don't know who did this to you, but I don't want to break you. I don't want to see you hurt." I tried to make myself sound calm.

After a moment, the fear in his eyes was replaced with some kind of understanding.

"Yeah," I said coolly. I wanted him to trust me. "I know what and who you are, Len, and I don't want to see you hurt."

As I said his name, he stood up looked at the coming cluster of children a little ways down the road.

"Do they?" he asked quietly. At first I wanted to say "Of course not! They probably don't even know who you are!" But then I thought a little harder about it. I knew those children. Some of them were okay, but some of them could be heartless bastards that want to watch the world burn.

"I don't know," I finally answered. Then a thought occurred to me. "Ne, where did you come from? Why were randomly in the street there?"

Fear built up in his eyes again, and he backed away a little bit. I started moving toward the bus stop, indicating that I wanted him to follow me. He hesitantly followed me as the children grew closer.

He had no choice but to trust me now.

"Someone not far from here...purchased me, I guess, but they were a little careless, and they hit me all the time. I ran away from them, and everywhere I went, people were hitting me and trying to...do things to me and I just...I just ran."

I peered into his eyes as I finally stood at the stop. I felt like crying. There was hurt written all over his face. After a moment, I said, "Can I see your arm?" And to my surprise, he held it out without thinking about it. The group of children had formed their usual cliques at the end of the bus stop.

The bus would be here soon, and I couldn't take Len with me.

I studied his arm for a moment, then slowly touched the cords that were exposed and sparking.

"Ow!" he cried out as I attempted to bend his arm a bit. I realized that he had it straight out like that the whole time because it obviously hurt.

But he was an android. How did it hurt?

I left his arm alone. I would attempt to fix it later. But I had to face the existing problem first. The bus just pulled out of the garage at the end of the street, I could see it, and I needed to keep Len in one spot, and safe while I was at school.

This was a neighborhood of evil. Anywhere I put him, he'd likely get kidnapped and sold for scrap metal or something.

"Len?" I addressed him, and he paid immediate attention. "I have to go somewhere for a while, and I need you to stay here until I get back. I'll take care of you, okay?"

He nodded, and then turned to face the apartment complex before us. The wall was lined with bushes, which he slipped behind, and crouched. I smiled.

As the bus pulled up, and I climbed on, I could feel worry welling up in me. What if he just decided I wasn't coming back, and left? Or what is someone did take him? Maybe he just left because he didn't think he could trust me?

My stomach turned in knots as I worried about my android.

The hours ticked by so slowly, it felt like torture. P.E required me to do a little running. Language was just flat out boring, as we were doing packet work, so it was okay for me to be distracted by my thoughts. I always let my mind wander in in my following three classes.

Finally, the end of the day rolled around, and I grabbed my things and left so fast that I thought I might pass out from the exhaustion.

The bus ride home was longer than usual; we got held up by a train that got seemly stuck on the tracks. Life was making me suffer right now. Every second that ticked by, I could just see my android walking away, never knowing where he was going or who would kill him.

We finally stopped at the stop once again, and I ran off.

To my horror, he wasn't there. I looked around a bit, attempting to see where he went, but in the end I faced defeat and started walking home. My pm3 player played Paradichclorobenzene on a continuous loop.

I neared my house, took off my key that always hung around my neck, and looked around one more time.

I spent the rest of the night pent up in my room, sad, and I fell alseep that night to the sound of his robotic voice replaying in my heard.

The next day was normal. I pushed the thought of Len out of my head, and focused on making sure my homework was done and my hair was somewhat decent.

Hair? Check.

Mp3? Check.

Homework? Check.

Key? Check.

I opened the door, ready to leave.

Len stood at the end of the driveway, peering at me.

I made sure my mother, who was sitting on the bench next to our door, wasn't watching, then ran to him and wrapped him in a hug.

"How did you find me?" I said through my tears of joy.

"I watched you walk down the street yesterday, but I didn't think you'd acknowledge my presence. Where did you go yesterday?" he asked me back.

"School. I stayed there for seven hours."

"Oh. I left where you told me to stay because I didn't think you were coming back. I'm sorry."

"No! It's fine!" I said, too happy to even care.

"Hey!" Came my mother's voice from the doorway. "Who is that?"

"Just a friend!" I shouted, hiding Len behind me. She couldn't know yet that I swore to take care of him.

As we walked down the street, I planned to get him on that bus with me. I didn't want him to leave me today, and it would be good for him to learn something other than the songs that have been programmed within him.

It was easy enough to sneak him on the bus with me, though all the children stared at us, the bus monitor wasn't there. He found a seat parallel to mine and stared out the window as the world passed by him. I watched him the whole time, afraid that if I turned away, he'd disappear.

School, on the other hand, was much harder to conduct for him. No one was given a notice that he was coming, and I had to explain Len's problem to them. They finally decided to allow it, making it so that he and I had the same classes.

"Don't know how much he'll get out of the last week of school, though," the principal added flatly.

Others found Len very entertaining. Every chance they got, they would speak to him, and ask him things. I found that he doesn't eat or drink, so he spent lunch talking to my friend Ambria across from me.

It was when I was headed to Reading that Len started to act a bit odd. There was someone in the crowd that was scaring him, and he was visibly shaking. I put my arm around him, then walked him into the room with me. The poor android's arm was still badly damaged, though he seemed to have patched himself up a bit so that he could move his arm with more ease.

I sat at my desk, and of course Len was next to me. Other kids started filing in. Makayla. Andrue. Adrue. Phoenix.

And then Kristen. And Kristen, off all girls, is the only one I find very...horrible, in every way.

As she walked in, past me and Len like she didn't even see us and went straight to the teacher's desk, I noticed that Len was shaking once again. His eyes were trained on Kristen.

She couldn't have possibly done something to him.

Right?

My reading teacher was writing her up again, always for being a distraction. As Kristen waited, she finally noticed Len.

Their eyes locked, and for a moment, the whole room seemed to have spun to a stop.

"Un...De wanai, futatabi... Shinaide kudasai..." Len said softly. His voice wavered, and it was obvious that he was afraid of her.

Why?

Kristen only smiled at him. "You know nobody know what you sayin!" the girl laughed out.

She then reached over and struck him across his face with the back of her hand. The room erupted in cheers as the reading teacher called the office for help.

I stood, and the room went silent again.

"Did you really just do that?" I said to Kristen directly. I looked at Len. He had his face in his hands and he was weeping quietly into them.

"Yeah, so? You don't know who he is, boy is stupid as hell!" She laughed this last part out once again, happily teasing him.

"You...you don't touch him, understand me?" I said bravely. This is the most courage i've ever gathered for anything. Kristen glared at me, her smile fading.

"Why you tryna defend him?" she asked. "What are you gonna do about it?"

I sucked in a breath, and said, "I'm trying to defend him because you abused him, and you left him to die, and if I hadn't found him when I did he might be beyond repair! And you don't wanna know how fucked up your face will be if you don't back off right now!"

Everyone went 'ooh!' as I cussed in Kristen's face.

The principal walked in just as the bell rang. The rest of the children were ordered to leave, and me, Kristen and Len stayed.

We had to explain it all to her. I got off with a detention, and Kristen got suspended, of course, for hitting Len.

Paige, who sat next to me normally, didn't come to the bus after school that day, so Len sat next to me and we talked. He knew more than he was letting off when it came to Kristen.

"Why don't you just tell me?" I asked him.

He only shook his head. "You might...you might hate me if you knew the truth." He shivered. "You're my only friend."

"Len," I said, and he listened closely as he always did. "Nothing you could do could make me hate you. Hell, if you'd killed someone I would help you hide the body. Just tell me!"

He looked down, then got close and whispered, "I deleted all my song data from my mind because I didn't want to be a mindless android that always follows orders. The people that bought me didn't see a reason to keep a Vocaloid that couldn't sing. They beat me so badly that it left bruises on my chest and legs, and when I ran away Kristen found me and broke my arm."

I absorbed this. Anger rose within me. It must've shown on my face, because the Vocaloid next to me whispered, "I'm sorry..."

But what came from my mouth reassured him that I wasn't upset with him. "What heartless person would do that to you?" I said under my breath.

The bus came to a stop. We climbed off and we started to walk back to my house when a girl named Moniqua stopped us.

She stood in front of Len, who froze. I felt tension rise, then out of no where, she kicked him in the chest with her right foot and stormed off. He fell to the ground with a thud and started moaning in agony. I kneeled next to him and helped him up.

But then we were surrounded by children, all of them attacking Len. Every attempt I took at trying to rescue him was futile; there was no way that I could break the barrier they made around him.

The only thing I could do was listen to him begging for them to stop as they beat him up.

And I just sat there, defenseless and weeping.

That group finally broke up and left, laughing. I looked at their faces. They were all friends of Kristen. That made sense, I guess.

I looked at my android, then crawled next to him and checked his pulse.

He was okay, but unconscious. It was dark at this point, and I no doubt had worried my mother sick.

I found that Len was relatively light, and picked him up in my arms. He rested his head on my chest as I walked back to the house.

As soon as I walked in, I laid Len on the black futon in my front room and kneeled next to the couch. My mother came in and hugged me tightly, ignoring Len for the moment. Then she started barking questions at me, some of which I couldn't answer, like where the hell Len came from.

I eventually worked out the mess with my mother, who agreed to let me keep Len as long as I kept him safe, and I removed his shirt so as to try and ice his wounds.

I screamed when I saw his chest.

There were so many bruises, black and blue, and blood that covered the most part of his chest. He awoke at that moment, and blinked around at his new surroundings. He tried to sit up, but then cringed and jerked back in pain.

"Don't move!" I told him, and the sound of my voice must've been enough to calm him. He laid still, letting out a pained groan now and again as I put his arm back together and gave him a blanket. There wasn't much I could do for those bruises except hope that they weren't permanent.

School let out and summer began. My android's expectations and curiosity about life and the things around him inspired me, and I did as much as I could to teach him all these things. We were close and happy late into my young adult years.

But then one day, Len fell asleep. And he wouldn't wake up.

I panicked. I began to shake him first, thinking that he was just very tired (this was how he charged himself.) But then I realized that his sweet digital heart wasn't beating.

"No!" I cried out, and started to run around like crazy grabbing USB port cords and Ethernet cables left and right. I hooked him up to my laptop, hoping he'd come back to me.

His eyes fluttered open after a moment. My heart skipped a beat and I was all smiles again...until he said, "I'm dying."

That was it. I should've known this would happen. He wasn't going to live forever just because he was made of steel and metal. I felt a tear drip from my eye, but I forced a smile.

"How do you feel?" I said, chocking back a sob.

"Like...I have a heart...and I can finally hear it beating."

My tears came faster and faster.

"But you know what?" he said after a moment. "I also feel some sort of pain in me...it feels like loneliness. Please hold me...I'm scared."

I wrapped my arms around him. He was shaking so badly...or maybe that was me? But I held on, and both of us started sobbing.

"Please stay with me!" he shouted after a minute. Then his body went still.

The sound of his crying stopped.

My android was dead.

Yet as I stood, yelling for my mother and dialing 911, I swear I heard a voice say,

"I love you."


End file.
